A front hood and a fender panel of a vehicle form a seam with each other, and components in the engine compartment are visible through the seam. Thus, the appearance is unattractive, and this has conventionally been regarded as a problem. To address this issue, this seam has been covered from inside the vehicle so as to make the appearance attractive. For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2009-161141 discloses a configuration in which the seam is covered by a fender protector 50 from inside the vehicle so as to improve the appearance.
On the other hand, with a technology such as that disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2009-161141, if the front hood or the fender panel is dented due to a colliding body (e.g., a pedestrian) colliding with the vehicle, the dented front hood or fender panel immediately comes into contact with the fender protector 50 that is disposed in extremely close proximity to the front hood and the fender panel. That is to say, there is the problem of reduction of the crash stroke. Thus, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2009-161141, the crash stroke is increased by releasing the coupling between the fender protector 50 and an apron upper member 30 disposed under the fender protector 50 in the case where a certain load is input.
However, there is a problem with the coupling between the fender protector 50 and the apron upper member 30 disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2009-161141 in that this coupling is only effective against a load from above and cannot cope with a lateral load.
The present invention was made in view of such problems, and it is an object thereof to provide a vehicle front structure that can absorb a collision energy with respect to not only a load from above but also a lateral load.